Dear Patrick: Life is Tough - Here's Some Good Advice (Paperback)

~ Jeffrey M. Schwartz (Author) "It was good to talk to you on the phone last night..." (more)
Key Phrases: unwise attention, impartial spectator, animal brain, Gotama Buddha, Jeff Dear Jeff, Brain Lock (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A deeply moving book topical and true enough to keep the average adult and the average hungry-minded teen thinking about it long after they finish reading."

Product Description

Dear Patrick,

For five years I have been witness to your struggles to grow up without a father. As a family friend, I can't make that up to you. What I can do is stand by you, and teach you how to be the kind of man you wish your father had been ...

So begins the correspondence of two unlikely friends, Patrick Buckley, a sixteen-year-old New York City high schooler, and Jeffrey M. Schwartz, internationally renowned neuroscientist and the critically acclaimed author of Brain Lock and The Mind and the Brain. Inspired by Patrick's straight forward questions, Schwartz examines the moral teachings of our greatest spiritual leaders -- Jesus, Buddha, and Moses -- and filters them through the lens of his cutting-edge psychiatric research, as well as his own experiences of childhood loneliness and loss. With fierce certainty and love, Schwartz provides Patrick with a blueprint for breaking free from the culture of corrosive cynicism that threatens to destroy him, and for constructing a decent, meaningful, and fulfilling life. The result is a fascinating and revolutionary new code for living born of a man and a boy who sought honor and self-command in a culture of self-indulgence.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (November 25, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006098743X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060987435
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #787,762 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, April 2, 2005

By	T. OHara (CA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A really great book, and a great explanation as to why these ideas (from Buddha, Jesus, Moses) are so important to our lives. Though technology has reshaped our physical lives, human nature has not changed, and we still have the same basic desires.
I had the opportunity to meet the author and speak with him (and to thank him for writing this book), and was thoroughly impressed by his scope of knowledge on these subjects.
This is the best book I have read in years, and has significantly altered how I look at my own life (a wake-up call you could say), and has allowed me to better understand the shortfalls of modern culture. It has helped reignite and reinvigorate my interest in religion, and I am grateful for having read it in a thorough and focused (though we can all be more focused) manner.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Eloquent & contemporary...., December 28, 2003

By A Customer

I'm not sure how many people would share this view, but I've often faced events that have made me wonder about whether it would be fair to call it merely a coincidence. Will not get into that line of thought here (would take too long!), sufficient to say that finding this book was one of those.
For some years now, I've been thinking and wondering about what to make of what's happening in the world at large, and with the youth of today in particular. In a specific and selfish sense, this would come up in my mind in the statement 'what kind of world and life is my son going to have' - and he's just turned 6-years now!
Generation gaps, the adolescent crises, forming an adult identity, these have always existed as passages right from the dawn of man, I've gone thru' many of these myself, as part of growing, not so many years ago. But there seem to be many differences in what youngters seem to be facing today - and from the way they behave, the situation seems to be much, much worse than during my time.
Just some days back, I'd thought that I should start writing to my son - pretty much about experiences, thoughts, ideas, beliefs and so on, as much for me as for him. And then I go and stumble on this book, would you call that a coincidence? :)
Dr Shwartz has written well - he's taken positions, made provocative statements, used contemporary examples and his language is pretty much aligned to the youth of today. I'm tempted to level a charge that he's pretty much stayed in the shallows of human nature and the enormous destruction that we're all capable of and keep seeing. But even within this, he's navigated wisely - and wisdom is about understanding the receiver of the information and their ability to handle and process.
The chapters (or letters to Patrick) have well intermeshed themes that flow and build up, and even within the chapter, the thought builds up smoothly. I'm repeating myself, but what has been particularly interesting is how Dr Shwarz has taken positions - he's called bad habits, bad approaches, bad lifestyles with names and labels, something that's not seen too much in such work.
My socio-cultural background is very different, being as I am from India and many of the cultural and familial situations described didn't completely translate to my growing years. But for the last decade or so, India has been frantically racing to catch up with the West in every sense, and with the information age well and truly upon us, this trend has a life and force of its own. And many youngsters are being swept along in the incredible force of this torrent. This book has the potential to make them think, if they're inclined that way already.
The need for a purpose higher than ourselves, the need for meaning, name it what you will, is as old as man. Dr Shwartz has made an eloquent hypothesis - he has tried to inspire Patrick and his generation to arrest the damage that the baby-boomers triggered off! And then works towards arming Patrick with a body of wisdom, to help him on this quest. An important concept that I encountered in this book was that of the ethosphere, which like the ecosphere can be irreversibly damaged and needs nurturing. Made intuitive sense to me, will let you figure it out for yourself from reading the book.
If you're on a similar quest, this book is bound to make you think and even provide you some guideposts and signs.
Happy reading!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars tour de force, August 21, 2004

By	Michael Sigman - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Schwartz is a brilliant neuroscientist who here ranges far afield -- through Buddhism, Edmund Burke, Eliot, Moses and more -- with seamless erudition and not a trace of condescension as he teaches a troubled teenager some invaluable life lessons.